Candid accessibility post from Google engineer Steve Yegge

Steve Yegge, a software engineer at Google, accidentally posted a very candid and eloquent rant on Google’s internal platform and accessibility challenges. Intended for internal eyes at Google, he posted this on Google+, making it public by accident. It is refreshing to read something so honest from someone inside the Plex.

If you’re sorta thinking, “huh? You mean like, blind and deaf people Accessibility?” then you’re not alone, because I’ve come to understand that there are lots and LOTS of people just like you: people for whom this idea does not have the right Accessibility, so it hasn’t been able to get through to you yet. It’s not your fault for not understanding, any more than it would be your fault for being blind or deaf or motion-restricted or living with any other disability. When software — or idea-ware for that matter — fails to be accessible to anyone for any reason, it is the fault of the software or of the messaging of the idea. It is an Accessibility failure.

You can read the entire post here. I’d love to see some of the changes he suggests implemented at Google. I hope he is put in a position to help make these changes.